XBLA Catch-Much: Farewell to XBLA

Curious about Hybrid. Sounds interesting but early reports are there are some networking issues. Hopefully just opening day jitters but the 3v3 matches sound intense.

Anyone else curious?

I played the beta, it was fun and a unique take on the genre. I don't think I'll be buying it, though. Saving my points for next week.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I played the beta, it was fun and a unique take on the genre. I don't think I'll be buying it, though. Saving my points for next week.

Well, it was just pulled due to the server problems. Hope they get it figured out.

Been very busy lately, but time for a "Thread Resurrection" with a big update, the Capcom Arcade Cabinet & Star Wars Pinball on Pinball FX2 (check the big PBFX2 Thread). Right now there are several titles online, including Ghosts & Goblins, 1943, and Black Tiger. [b]Be warned, these titles are old, and some have not aged well, not even the much vaunted Ghosts & Goblins. I haven't dug far into it so far, but I noticed that Section Z, Ghosts & Goblins are dated March 5 but there is an option to download these "NEW!" titles online now. It may just be an error as the titles in question- Section Z, Ghosts & Goblins, and Avengers- are dated March 5.

Direct from the Capcom News site:

Following the recent announcement of Capcom Arcade Cabinet it’s now time to lift the lid and reveal the full list of classic 8-bit titles and how gamers will be able to transform their PlayStation3 or Xbox 360 into their very own customizable, HD 80s arcade.

Starting February 19 until early May, a total of 15 titles from 1984-1988 will be released on a staggered schedule available to purchase digitally either as a series of packs or individually, allowing players to choose what they want to buy. By purchasing all 15 titles, either separately or together, players will gain access to two bonus games absolutely free.

Downloading an individual title or pack will also give access to the Capcom Arcade Cabinet ‘platform’ which provides additional features including DIP switch functionality, a music player, and the ability to capture and share screenshots or video. When playing in standard mode, players will be able to access DIP switch-like settings to adjust their number of lives and difficulty, including a Casual Mode which tones down the difficulty level and makes it more attainable to see the end credits. Further features include 2 player online play for certain titles; a global leaderboard; a training mode with infinite lives to hone your strategy and an option to select either the Japanese or international versions of the individual titles.

In order to share their experiences with friends, PlayStation 3 users will be able to capture video of gameplay to post on YouTube, while Xbox 360 users will be able to upload screenshots to Facebook. Further additions include a sound gallery that allows players to listen to the background music of any of the games in their cabinet, and an art gallery which fills with new pieces as players progress through the games.

Game Pack 1 and the first individual title, Black Tiger, will be available on February 19. Xbox 360 owners will be able to play through the game with a single credit before restarting. On the PlayStation 3, players will have unlimited credits effectively giving them the full game for free.

Please see below for a full list of all the games and when they are available? Stay tuned to Capcom-Unity for further information as new packs are released and visit the press site for a trailer and plenty of screens.

BUNDLE PACKS/INDIVIDUAL TITLES NORTH AMERICAN SCHEDULE PRICING
Black Tiger demo February 19 (PSN)
February 20 (XBLA) Free

GAME PACK 1
Titles: Black Tiger, Avengers, 1943: The Battle of Midway February 19 (PSN)
February 20 (XBLA) $4.99/400MSP

GAME PACK 2
Titles: Ghosts n Goblins, Gun.Smoke, Section Z March 5 (PSN/XBLA) $9.99/800MSP
Avengers March 5 (PSN)* $3.99
1943: The Battle of Midway March 5 (PSN)* $3.99

GAME PACK 3
Side Arms, Legendary Wings, Trojan March 19 (PSN/XBLA) $9.99/800MSP
Ghosts n Goblins March 19 (PSN/XBLA) $3.99/320MSP
Gun.Smoke March 19 (PSN/XBLA) $3.99/320MSP
Section Z March 19 (PSN/XBLA) $3.99/320MSP

GAME PACK 4
Titles: Commando, The Speed Rumbler, Exed Exes (Savage Bees) April 2 (PSN/XBLA) $9.99/800MSP
Side Arms April 2 (PSN/XBLA) $3.99/320MSP
Legendary Wings April 2 (PSN/XBLA) $3.99/320MSP
Trojan April 2 (PSN/XBLA) $3.99/320MSP

GAME PACK 5
Titles: 1942, SonSon, Pirate Ship Higemaru April 16 (PSN/XBLA) $9.99/800MSP
Commando April 16 (PSN/XBLA) $3.99/320MSP
The Speed Rumbler April 16 (PSN/XBLA) $3.99/320MSP
Exed Exes (Savage Bees) April 16 (PSN/XBLA) $3.99/320MSP
1942 April 30 (PSN/XBLA) $3.99/320MSP
SonSon April 30 (PSN/XBLA) $3.99/320MSP
Pirate Ship Higemaru April 30 (PSN/XBLA) $3.99/320MSP

Bonus Pack (for those who have purchased all five game packs or all 15 individual titles
Titles: Two titles (names to be confirmed)

TBC Free for those who have purchased all previously released packs or individual titles

All-in-one-pack
Titles: All 17 games May 21 (PSN/XBLA) $29.99/2000MSP

I see there hasn't been anything new posted here for a while, but has anyone checked out Battleblock Theater yet?

I had no idea what it was until today, but upon glancing at some reviews and trailers, I'm very intrigued. It's from the guys that made Castle Crashers. I'm surprised there's no chatter here for it.

I watched the Giantbomb QL, and eh... it looked kind of simple. It also compares to Little Big Planet, a series I really don't like, and I didn't like Castle Crashers. So I guess I'm just a big ball of negativity.

I love other games though! >_>

LOVING Battleblock Theater so far.

Not be contrary to your contraryship, Blind_Evil, but it's not simple. And it reminds me nothing of Little Big Planet OR Castle Crashers.

What it IS is a lot of silly, twisted, fun and violent platforming (you WILL die over and over), and so far has a really good difficulty curve. I'm on the third world (out of eight) and I know there's plenty more and different diabolicalness to come. And the narrator's voice (which you can turn off) makes me giggle every time I die and it says "OH MY GOSH!"

Highly recommend.

Really enjoying the new Motocross Madness so far. It's not the Motocross Madnesses of yore, but if like me you only played Motocross Madness 2 in exploration mode, doing tricks and enjoying the crashes, then it is the MXM of yore, and a whole lot more (er, different).

Basics out of the way: race or explore on a motorcycle, pulling off crazy tricks in the air. That's either appealing or it isn't, and if it is, then you either have $10 to spare or you don't. I recommend it.

The game looks great. It has the same feel as Pure or Motorstorm, all lush and dirty over-the-top locales, just cartoony. The pop-in is almost comically egregious (the first second or two of a level is like watching a big PDF load), but this isn't the most well-funded game. I can forgive that technical fault, since the rest is no slouch: bikes cut lovely long ruts in the sand, and dust—so much dust—is thrown up all around, very quickly covering your avatar.

That cartooniness also manifests as giant coins littering the courses. They're used for buying bikes/upgrades/clothes, but are also useful as indications for shortcuts and sidetracks. They, and collectible skulls, also exist in Exploration mode, so even that otherwise freeform mode has medals (based on how many skulls you found while tooling around), but they're all cleared permanently so the sandboxes will be made less cluttered the more you explore (and again they indicate possible routes and jumps, and hunting down the skulls will lead to hidden jumps or tucked away milieus).

The coins, hand-in-hand with the level system, lead to my only complaint so far in playing: everything is broken down to its individual component—bikes, upgrades, small tricks, medium tricks, melee attacks (!), helmets, gloves, and so forth—and then locked, with no indication of how much XP is required for any element. Simply playing seems to be the route to unlocking anything, but some indication of what I'm shooting for next would be appreciated.

The avatar stuff is pretty good. This is the first time the little guy has seen any action since the dearly missed 1 Vs 100, at least as more than a rally car ornament. There's the dust, a detail I love, which really grounds the avatar as a part of the gameworld. Of course he ragdolls in crashes, so even if you hate avatars, there's even sadistic value to be found here. You can dress him up in in-game-restricted gear, or suddenly my avatar award Dirt 3 racing outfit makes a lot more sense—although I'm thinking of busting out the Snoopy flying goggles for this one.

I passed on Pure and SSX only because they don't have split-screen. To me, these games demand it: sitting on the couch, laughing with a friend at your shared on-screen insanity. This does have split-screen, so barring a complete disaster in the trial, that made it an instant buy. Watching my wife's and my avatars tear it up in the Egyptian desert filled me with joy.

Thanks for the review, Gravey. I was wondering if the XBLA would be as fun as Motocross Madness 2, especially since I only liked exploring. Now I'm definitely going to check it out.

stauf7 wrote:

Thanks for the review, Gravey. I was wondering if the XBLA would be as fun as Motocross Madness 2, especially since I only liked exploring. Now I'm definitely going to check it out.

If you end up buying it, feel free to shoot me a friend request to populate the Bike Club.

Man, I used to love MM2 back in the day.

This new one wasn't even on my radar (didn't even know it was in development). I'll have to give the demo a whirl.

Gravey wrote:
stauf7 wrote:

Thanks for the review, Gravey. I was wondering if the XBLA would be as fun as Motocross Madness 2, especially since I only liked exploring. Now I'm definitely going to check it out.

If you end up buying it, feel free to shoot me a friend request to populate the Bike Club.

How's the Speed Wheel integration?

Might just have to download the trial, I loved Pure.

Looking forward to the DotW this week (via MN's blog)

16-Apr to 22-Apr

480 (60% off) I Am Alive
600 (50% off) Gotham City Impostors
200 (75% off) Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
320 (60% off) Warhammer® 40,000®: Kill Team™
600 (50% off) Lara Croft The Guardian of Light
480 (60% off) HELL YEAH! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit
320 (60% off) Bionic Commando Rearmed
480 (60% off) Bionic Commando Rearmed 2
400 (50% off) Black Knight Sword

Specifically looking at Black Knight Sword and I Am Alive for myself. Any enabling, or dissuading on those two?

m0nk3yboy wrote:

Looking forward to the DotW this week (via MN's blog)

16-Apr to 22-Apr

480 (60% off) I Am Alive
600 (50% off) Gotham City Impostors
200 (75% off) Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
320 (60% off) Warhammer® 40,000®: Kill Team™
600 (50% off) Lara Croft The Guardian of Light
480 (60% off) HELL YEAH! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit
320 (60% off) Bionic Commando Rearmed
480 (60% off) Bionic Commando Rearmed 2
400 (50% off) Black Knight Sword

Specifically looking at Black Knight Sword and I Am Alive for myself. Any enabling, or dissuading on those two?

I found the demos for both of those to be really unimpressive, actually. I am Alive was kind of bland and unpolished, and Black Knight Sword was mostly mostly just weird (not the good weird, personally), controlled like crap and was poorly checkpointed.

The Hell Yeah demo was pretty fun though. I might pick that up.

Garden Ninja wrote:

I found the demos for both of those to be really unimpressive, actually. I am Alive was kind of bland and unpolished, and Black Knight Sword was mostly mostly just weird (not the good weird, personally), controlled like crap and was poorly checkpointed.

The Hell Yeah demo was pretty fun though. I might pick that up.

I was enjoying the demo for I Am Alive, then the combat kicked in... Sod that. BKS seems to have a Gilliamesque quality to it that I'm liking, I'm willing to throw 400 space bucks that way.

I'm going to add a bolded +1 to Gravey's recommendation on MXM, it is a LOT of fun. I was going to wait on a sale, but the thought of beating his records 'now' was just too tempting

m0nk3yboy wrote:

I'm going to add a bolded +1 to Gravey's recommendation on MXM, it is a LOT of fun. I was going to wait on a sale, but the thought of beating his records 'now' was just too tempting ;)

The impertinence! Looking forward to smashing your records.

I just saw that a remake of Flashback is going to be a summer of arcade game. I know what I will be spending my points on! That was one of my favorite games back then.

EvilDead wrote:

I just saw that a remake of Flashback is going to be a summer of arcade game. I know what I will be spending my points on! That was one of my favorite games back then.

I loved it on the SNES. I'm looking forward to picking it up this summer.

EvilDead wrote:

I just saw that a remake of Flashback is going to be a summer of arcade game. I know what I will be spending my points on! That was one of my favorite games back then.

Looks like the Shadow Complex engine. Is ChAIR making it?

Anyone try out Charlie Murder yet? Co-optimus described it as a 4 player beat em up with diablo style loot and upgrades. I'm not totally digging the art style but the gameplay seems like it might be right up my alley.

EvilDead wrote:

Anyone try out Charlie Murder yet? Co-optimus described it as a 4 player beat em up with diablo style loot and upgrades. I'm not totally digging the art style but the gameplay seems like it might be right up my alley.

It's quite fun so far. Over the top and bloody fun. You could do a lot worse for ten bucks.

brokenclavicle wrote:
EvilDead wrote:

Anyone try out Charlie Murder yet? Co-optimus described it as a 4 player beat em up with diablo style loot and upgrades. I'm not totally digging the art style but the gameplay seems like it might be right up my alley.

It's quite fun so far. Over the top and bloody fun. You could do a lot worse for ten bucks.

Cool, I think I have convinced myself to buy it next time a couple buddies are over. If it is like a Castle Crashers with way more depth it will be perfect.

It's been awhile, and it seems the XBox Indie, XBLA, and Games On Demand will all be wrapped into one digital service, so you will be able to go online and find what you're looking for, not searching across 3 services. Indie developers will get more visibility with this one, which could be good.

MaxShrek wrote:

It's been awhile, and it seems the XBox Indie, XBLA, and Games On Demand will all be wrapped into one digital service, so you will be able to go online and find what you're looking for, not searching across 3 services. Indie developers will get more visibility with this one, which could be good.

I hope this opens up XBox Indie to "The World Outside of America" as there are a lot of cool titles that up until now I have had to 'fudge' the EULA to get access to through a US account.

I'll xpost this in the xbone thread if I don't get any response, but will try it here first.

Now that I have my xbone it is indeed time to sunset the 360+kinect. I'm going to give it to my brother in law who has 2 girls ages 6 and 3. My first thought was just to wipe the whole thing, since most of my content really wouldn't be appropriate or interesting to them, not to mention that my entire friends list would go with my profile and you guys are a bunch of heathen scallywags. However, the kids do love them some Kinect Party and since I got it in its free window, I'd love to give that to them with it.

I keep reading about "license transfer" but that seems to be for transfer to a new physical 360. I just want to delete my profile and keep the games on whatever profile they create (or I create for them). Could I just wipe my profile off the 360 and the licenses would stay?

Is it the 360 that you purchased the content on? I would expect that it would still work without your profile. You should be able to safely test it first. Simply create a guest account, delete yours, and then verify that the guest account still has access to the full title.

Test it for sure, but you can have other profiles access the content you have downloaded.

You can/could region skip this way also (not sure how easy this is now they have moved to real money).

I set up a US account, downloaded all your crazy free crap, and even bought some US flavoured space bucks to take advantage of your sales.

I then signed out, signed back in with with my AU account, and played all the new shiny.

I can't believe we never got a sequel to Shadow Complex.

You hear me, Xbone? Shadow Complex 2! Nuts and Bolts 2! MY DEMANDS ARE SIMPLE.

My kids play Kinect party on local accounts on the same machine I downloaded it on with my gold account. I don't know if it checks for the download account, so it should work, but as others mentioned you should test it.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I can't believe we never got a sequel to Shadow Complex.

You can thank iOS for that one. After Infinity Blade exploded, Chair seems to have back-burnered development of anything unrelated to it.

It's an interesting narrative, really, because they were talking so much about their plans for the Empire IP and how they were going to do so much with it, and how Shadow Complex was just the first game in a whole new world, and then it all stopped. I don't know for sure, but I get the sense that Chair was caught off-guard by the success of Infinity Blade and just rode the wave. (I also don't know how much higher-ups at Epic contributed to the shift in direction.)